Divinity of Jesus - Week 5
- May 10
- 11 min read
We are in week five of our series on the Divinity of Jesus. Over these weeks we have been walking through the Gospel of John and looking at the moments where Jesus makes extraordinary claims about His own identity.
We started with the eternal Word who became flesh. We heard Jesus claim the divine name - I AM. We looked at Him as the Bread of Life, the Light of the World. And today He is going to do something that is deeply personal.
Today He is going to tell us He is our Shepherd.
At the end of chapter 9, the Pharisees had heard Jesus declaring that those who claim to see, that is to have knowledge of God, are actually blind in that regard. This is the healing of the blind man and basically says “yeah you Pharisees are blind”.
We continue in what most consider the same location with a similar crowd if not the same Pharisees around to hear what John documents in Chapter 10.
Btw. Did you know that no parables are recorded in John? Maybe he thought metaphors would work or the other authors had it covered. Not sure, but let’s check it out.
Now if you grew up in church, the phrase "the Lord is my shepherd" is probably very familiar. It is from Psalm 23. Printed on greeting cards. Read at funerals. And because we have heard it so many times, it might have kind of lost its edge.
Let me try to give it the edge back.
Open your Bibles to John chapter 10, verse 7 and lets see what we can learn.
A shepherd in the ancient world was not a romantic figure. It was a tough job. You lived outdoors with the animals. You had to know your flock individually - their tendencies, which ones were likely to wander. And when a predator came, you did not run. You stood. Because you were responsible for those sheep. They depended entirely on you.
When Jesus says "I am the good shepherd," He is not being poetic. He is making a claim about His character and His commitment. And before He says the shepherd line, He says something else first that sets the whole thing up.
1. Jesus Is the Door to Salvation (vv. 7-10)
John 10:7-10
So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
Before He is the shepherd, He is the door. And here is the image. In ancient sheepfolds, the shepherd would gather the sheep at night into an enclosure for protection. The only entrance was a single opening - and the shepherd himself would literally lie down across that opening. He became the door. If anything was going to get to those sheep, it had to go through him first.
Jesus is saying - I am the only entrance. That is not arrogance. That is protection. Everything that wants to steal from you, destroy you, kill what God has put in you - has to get past Him first. And He is not moving.
And then verse 10 - one of the great contrasts in all of Scripture. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Not survival. Not barely making it. Abundantly. The Greek word is perissos - it means exceeding what is expected, more than necessary, overflowing. Jesus is not offering you a smaller life with better rules. He is offering you something bigger than anything you would have found on your own.
The thief wants to take everything you have. Jesus came to give you more than you can imagine.
Exegesis
The word Jesus uses for "door" here is the Greek thura, and it carries a specific weight in context. He is not speaking metaphorically the way we might use it today. He is speaking into a first-century sheepfold - a stone enclosure with a single narrow opening. There was no gate. At a minimum there was a keeper of the door that knew the shepherd but oftentimes, The shepherd's own body was the gate. He lay across the threshold at night so that nothing could enter or leave without going through him.
Notice that Jesus says "I am the door of the sheep" - not just the door to the sheepfold. He is identifying with the sheep themselves. He is their door. Their protector. Their only safe way in and out.
The phrase "thieves and robbers" in verse 8 is pointed. Jesus is referring to the religious leaders who had just driven the blind man out of the synagogue in John 9 - the chapter immediately before this one. These were men who used their religious authority not to lead people to God, but to exploit and exclude them. They were not shepherds. They were taking.
And verse 10 gives us the clearest picture of Jesus's mission in all of John's Gospel. The contrast is stark: the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus comes to give life, and life abundantly. That word perissos in the Greek is not just more of the same. It is life that goes beyond what you could have calculated, expected, or even asked for. It is life at a different quality - not just quantity. This is a kingdom word. It is what happens when the Shepherd is in charge.
Application
Check What You Are Walking Through. Every day you are walking through a door somewhere - your phone screen, your habits, your relationships, your work. Some of those doors are taking things from you. They promised one thing and delivered something else. This week, honestly name one area of your life where the thief has been at work. Where have you felt something being slowly drained? That is where the Shepherd wants to stand.
Stop Settling for Less Than Abundant. Abundant life is not automatic. It grows in proximity to the Shepherd. The sheep who wanders to the edge of the fold does not experience the fullness of what the shepherd provides. This week, identify one thing you have been settling for - one way you have been living at the survival level instead of the abundance level - and bring it to Jesus. Not because you have to, but because He came specifically for that.
You were not designed to barely get by. The door is open. Walk through it.
2. Jesus Is the Shepherd Who Dies for His Flock (vv. 11-15)
John 10:11-15
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
He says it twice. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life.
There is a contrast here - the good shepherd versus the hired hand. The hired hand is there for a paycheck. When things get dangerous, he calculates the risk and he runs. Those sheep are not his. He has nothing at stake.
But the shepherd? The sheep are his. And when the wolf comes, he stands. Even if it costs him everything.
That is what Jesus did on the cross. He did not run. He stood between us and everything that would destroy us. He took the wolf - took sin, death, condemnation - and absorbed it Himself so that the sheep could walk free.
And then this beautiful piece: I know my own. Not I know about my own. I know them. Intimately. The same way the Father knows the Son. That is a level of knowing that goes beyond information - it is relationship, belonging, recognition.
He did not just know who you were from a distance. He laid down His life because He knew you - and decided you were worth it.
Exegesis
The word translated "good" in "good shepherd" is the Greek kalos. It does not simply mean morally good, though it includes that. It means beautiful, noble, ideal - the shepherd who is everything a shepherd was designed to be. Jesus is not saying He is a good shepherd among many options. He is saying He is the definitive shepherd. The one the role was created to describe.
The hired hand was a real figure in first-century Palestinian culture. He was a day laborer - someone paid to watch the sheep but who had no ownership stake. The Mishnah, a collection of Jewish oral law, actually discussed the legal obligations of hired shepherds when animals were attacked. The point is this: a hired hand's legal obligation ended at personal risk. The good shepherd's obligation did not.
Verse 14 gives us something staggering: "I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father." Jesus is placing the relationship between Himself and His sheep at the same level as the relationship between the Father and the Son. This is not casual familiarity. The word "know" here is ginosko in Greek - it means experiential, relational, intimate knowledge. The Father knows the Son. The Son knows the Father. And Jesus says - that is the same way I know you.
He is not referencing data. He is referencing belonging.
Application
Let the Shepherd's Knowledge Be Your Security. Most of us spend energy managing what people know about us. We curate what we show. We protect what we hide. But Jesus says - I know you, fully, and I still lay down my life for you. This week, bring one thing to God that you have been hiding or managing - something you have kept in the edges. Not to confess it to a crowd. Just to stop managing it in front of the One who already knows.
Identify Who Is Actually Watching Your Flock. The hired hand runs when it costs something. Think about the voices you are listening to, the influences you are following, the things guiding your decisions. When things get hard - do those voices stay or do they scatter? The Shepherd stays. This week, ask yourself honestly: who are you following, and what will they do when the wolf shows up?
3. Jesus' Divine Authority Over Life and Death (vv. 16-18)
John 10:16-18
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
This might be the most overlooked part of this whole passage - and it has two things we need to slow down on.
First, verse 16. "I have other sheep that are not of this fold." Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience, and He is telling them that His flock is bigger than they think. The "other sheep" are the Gentiles - people outside the covenant of Israel. People like most of us in this room.
He says, "I must bring them also." That word must in the Greek is dei - it is a word of divine necessity. This is not optional for Jesus. This was always the plan. One flock. One shepherd. Not Jewish and Gentile sitting in separate sections. One.
Which means if you are sitting in this room and you were not raised in a Jewish home, not raised in the covenant community of Israel - you are not an afterthought. You were not plan B. Jesus said 'I must bring them also' before the cross ever happened. He was talking about you.
Second - no one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. And I have the authority to take it up again.
This is not a victim going to the cross. This is a King choosing it. Jesus did not get overpowered by Rome or by the religious leaders. He chose the cross. He had the authority to stop it at any moment. He chose not to.
And then He says - and I have the authority to take it up again. Which is exactly what happened on Easter morning. No one resurrected Jesus against His will. He walked out of that tomb under His own divine authority. The resurrection is not something that happened to Jesus. It is something He did.
That changes everything about how we think about the cross. It was not a tragedy that got redeemed. It was a mission accomplished.
The more we understand about the resurrection, the more we understand there is not a need in this life that God cannot meet or answer.
Hebrews 13:20
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
What a reinforcement of who the Shepherd is!
Exegesis
Verse 16 is one of the most quietly revolutionary statements Jesus ever made. He is standing in Jerusalem, speaking to Jewish leaders, and He tells them the fold is expanding. "Other sheep not of this fold" is an unmistakable reference to the Gentile world. This was not a new idea in the Hebrew Scriptures - Isaiah 49:6 says God would make His servant "a light for the nations" - but hearing it from Jesus directly, mid-conversation, with the confidence of "I must bring them," would have been stunning.
The phrase "one flock, one shepherd" is theologically loaded. There is one word for "flock" used here - poimne - not two flocks merged, not Israel plus the nations sitting separately. One. The wall of division that Paul later describes in Ephesians 2 as "the dividing wall of hostility" - Jesus is already announcing its demolition in verse 16.
Verses 17-18 establish something critical about the nature of the cross. Jesus says the Father loves Him because He lays His life down. This does not mean the Father would not love Him otherwise - it means the cross is an expression of the same unity and trust that exists eternally between the Father and Son. Jesus uses the word exousia - authority - twice. "I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again." This is sovereignty language. He is not subject to the cross. He is the one directing it.
The resurrection, then, is not a reversal of the crucifixion. It is the completion of it. The same divine will that chose the cross chose the empty tomb. Both were acts of the same authority.
Application
You Were Not an Afterthought. If you have ever felt like an outsider - in the church, in the faith, in the family of God - hear verse 16 again. Jesus said "I must bring them also" before you ever asked to be included. He was not surprised when you walked through the door. He was expecting you. Your presence here is not accidental. It was announced.
Rest in the Authority of the Resurrection. We live in a world that is constantly trying to take things from us - our peace, our security, our hope. But the Shepherd who leads you is the same one who said no one takes anything from me. The cross looked like defeat. The empty tomb settled the question. This week, when something feels like it is being taken from you, remember who holds the authority. It did not catch Him off guard. He has already seen the other side.
He is not a shepherd who watches from a safe distance. He went through death first so you would know the path is safe.
GOSPEL CONNECTION
Psalm 23 begins - the Lord is my shepherd. And it ends - I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Jesus is the answer to that psalm. He is the Shepherd who does not just lead us to green pastures in this life - He leads us home. He laid down His life and took it back up again so that the sheep could follow where He went.
If you are in this room today and you feel like a lost sheep - you are not too far gone. The Good Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find the one. That is still true. He is still looking.
The cross is where the door was opened. The resurrection is where the Shepherd proved He has authority over everything that would try to keep you out. You do not have to earn your way in. You just have to walk through the door.
And His name is Jesus.